Golden bandicoot

Isoodon auratus

Blamed on cats

IUCN status: Vulnerable

EPBC Predator Threat Rating: Not assessed

IUCN claim: “The reasons for past declines of the Golden Bandicoot are predation by feral cats and red foxes”

Studies in support

Cats were the main predator of a group of reintroduced, predator-inexperienced bandicoots (Blythman et al. 2020) and also on locally-born bandicoots (Wysong 2016; Doherty et al. 2017). Bandicoots were last confirmed in the Nullarbor 37 years after cats arrived (Current submission).

Studies not in support

Cats were not recorded as predators of a group of reintroduced bandicoots (Christensen & Burrows 1995). A cat breached a bandicoot enclosure, none were hunted in five weeks (from Moseby et al. 2015). Bandicoots were last confirmed in NSW 18 years before cats arrived (Current submission).

Is the threat claim evidence-based?

There are no studies linking cats to golden bandicoot population trends. The fate of reintroduced animals is not a reliable proxy for the fate of populations. In contradiction with the claim the extirpation record from NSW pre-dates the cat arrival record.

Evidence linking Isoodon auratus to cats. A. Systematic review of evidence for an association between Isoodon auratus and cats. Positive studies are in support of the hypothesis that cats contribute to the decline of Isoodon auratus, negative studies are not in support. Predation studies include studies documenting hunting or scavenging; baiting studies are associations between poison baiting and threatened mammal abundance where information on predator abundance is not provided; population studies are associations between threatened mammal and predator abundance. B. Last records of extirpated populations relative to earliest local records of cats. Error bars show record uncertainty range. Predator arrival records were digitized from Abbott 2008. See methods section in [current submission] for details on evidence categories.

References

Abbott, The spread of the cat, Felis catus, in Australia: re-examination of the current conceptual model with additional information. Conservation Science Western Australia 7 (2008).

Blythman, M., Lohr, C., Sims, C. and Morris, K., 2020. Translocation of Golden Bandicoots, Isoodon auratus barrowensis, from a fenced enclosure to unfenced managed land on Matuwa (formally Lorna Glen) September 2015: Final Report. Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions, Perth Western Australia, 43.

Christensen, P. and Burrows, N., 1995. Project desert dreaming: experimental reintroduction of mammals to the Gibson Desert, Western Australia. Reintroduction Biology of Australian and New Zealand Fauna’.(Ed. M. Serena.) pp, pp.199-207.

Current submission (2023) Scant evidence that introduced predators cause extinctions.

Doherty, T.S., Dickman, C.R., Johnson, C.N., Legge, S.M., Ritchie, E.G. and Woinarski, J.C., 2017. Impacts and management of feral cats Felis catus in Australia. Mammal Review, 47(2), pp.83-97.

IUCN Red List. https://www.iucnredlist.org/ Accessed June 2023

Moseby, K.E., Peacock, D.E. and Read, J.L., 2015. Catastrophic cat predation: a call for predator profiling in wildlife protection programs. Biological Conservation, 191, pp.331-340.

Wysong, M.L., 2016. Predator ecology in the arid rangelands of Western Australia: spatial interactions and resource competition between an apex predator, the dingo Canis dingo, and an introduced mesopredator, the feral cat Felis catus. PhD thesis, University of Western Australia, Perth.